Everybody loves the traditional houses of Provence, with their brightly coloured shutters contrasting with the pastel shades of the walls and the terracotta waves of the roof tiles.

In Britain, building new houses in the vernacular style is frowned upon by people who feel every new building should make a statement for our times. Happily, in France it is quite OK, so people who like to live in traditional style but without having to renovate an old wreck have lots to choose from.

The trend was pioneered by the renegade architect Francois Spoerry, who started out as a modernist in his home city of Mulhouse but became convinced that modernism had lost touch with human scale and emotions. The buildings that the people had built for themselves for hundreds of years should be the model for architects seeking to create places that would be a pleasure to live in, rather than machines for living in. Spoerry called it a 'gentle architecture'.

Spoerry put his ideas into concrete form at Port Grimaud, a new village dug out of a swamp near St Tropez. It was based on a network of canals to allow most residents to moor their yacht next to their house (Spoerry was a fanatical sailor). But its biggest innovation was the higgledy-piggledy arrangement of traditional houses. It looks like an old fishing village where the fishermen have all come into money and bought yachts.

As critics point out, Port Grimaud is not traditionally constructed at all, but built of concrete using modern techniques. The traditional look is as thin as a layer of pastel paint. But it is now a hugely popular tourist attraction, to the extent that property prices are held back somewhat by the hordes of daytrippers even though they are excluded from the purely residential areas.

Prices range from about £3m for an eight-bedroom waterfront house with a mooring for a couple of boats, to £120,000 for a one-bed flat without a mooring.

Spoerry's legacy is the acceptance of traditional architecture all over Provence. At Pont Royal, a golf development near Aix-en-Provence, his former partner Chuck Legler is completing a new village in the vernacular style arranged around a course designed by the golfer Severiano Ballesteros.

The village looks as though it has been around for ever. Its steep winding paths, eye-catching towers and cosy squares with bistros and cafes are typical of the region. The houses have all the trimmings of traditional houses. Windows have louvred shutters, the chimneys have roofs to stop the rain getting in, and the roofs even feature 'geneoises' - two extra layers of tiles that have no practical use beyond emphasising the wealth of the owner.

The fact that a lot of the 'hill' on which it is raised is actually a multi-storey car park does not seem to matter to the people who live in the village. They just like its traditional look - and lifestyle. Local farmers even run a market in the square during the summer.

French developer MGM Constructeurs, well known for its Alpine resorts, has just started building the final phase of Pont Royal, also designed by Legler: a new hamlet grouped around a square, complete with trees and restaurants. Gaps in the houses give artful views of the village and the plain behind, including the dramatic new railway viaduct taking the TGVs hurtling between Paris and Marseilles - when London's new terminal at St Pancras opens in 2007, the nearby station at Avignon will be just six hours away.

The new phase, Le Hameau des Trois Collines, will have 20 town houses and 65 apartments. The size of the town houses ranges from 92 sq metres to 114 sq metres, and they have a terrace and a small garden. The apartments start at 45 sq metres (one bedroom) and go up to 106 sq metres (three bedrooms).

Originally, the plan included detached villas and MGM even built a luxury three-bed show house with patio and pool, but public demand has shifted in favour of accommodation that needs less horticultural attention before getting out on the golf course. Prices at Pont Royal start at €161,000 (£108,600) for a one-bed apartment to €481,000 for a four-bed townhouse.

Non-golfers and gastronomes who prefer to live in a proper French village rather than a gated development may prefer MGM's houses on the edge of La Mole, the home town near St Tropez of author and aviator Antoine de Sainte-Exupery. The village includes a butcher, baker and grocer as well as the fabulous Auberge de la Mole, as patronised by Princess Diana.